Turn your Windows into a Mac....

[PyrrhusIV]

We all know windows is currently the largest Operating System in terms of Software. Although this is true, Apple with their Appealing OS has also achieved some fame. If anything, the Apple OS looks much, much better than Windows, unless you've themed it or modded it. So, enough of the talking, on to the project!



So, you wanna make your ugly Windows XP interface look like Mac OS X, huh? It's really not all that difficult to do, and with a little luck, you'll be able to convince all but the most die-hard Mac users that you run an Apple computer. First, here's a list of the programs you'll need:

StyleXP or WindowBlinds (skins the Graphical User Interface of your operating system)
ObjectBar (the white Finder bar on the top of Macs; has File, Edit, View, etc. on it.)
ObjectDock (The dock on the bottom of a Mac that contains icons and shortcuts to programs)
YZShadow (puts a lovely drop shadow under your windows á la Mac OS X)
Rainlender (popular skinable desktop calendar)
Rainmeter (skinnable desktop system statistics)
i!Tunes for Windows (Self Explanatory)
Icons (The pretty little pictures on your desktop that point you somewhere. There are millions out there, but try the link provided for over a 1,000 lifted from Mac OS X 10.3 aka Panther)

That's pretty much what you'll want for starters. You don't need all of these, and in fact, you really only need a few to get a reasonably good looking OS X facsimile, but if you're gonna do this you might as well do it right. Now on to the guide.

This guide assumes that you have either downloaded/purchased the programs listed and 0that you know your way around a computer, at least to a reasonable extent.

1) I use StyleXP for my visual style, so that's what I'll detail here. WindowBlinds isn't that different, but if you prefer it, be my guest. The first thing you'll need to do is download a skin. I recommend Kol's website, StudioTwentyEight for some excellent skins, but feel free to look around for any others that might interest you. Download your ZIP, and extract it to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes. Open up StyleXP and load up that baby. Your windows should now look like the skin you downloaded. If you chose Panther (an excellent choice) then they should look somewhat like this:


2) Time to find a good ObjectBar skin. I'd suggest crni's website for some excellent themes. Download the one you like best and extract it to your ObjectBar folder. Open the new folder in there (named something like the theme you downloaded) and double-click the .OBTHEME icon. The top of your screen should now look something like this, depending on your theme (Milk for me):


3) Next up is the dock. Open up whichever version you settled on downloading. This is pretty easy to set up. Basically all you need to do is drag shortcuts or executables to the dock and ta da, you have a shortcut. To change it's icon, right-click and select "change icon" or some variation. To get new icons to select, make sure you put them in the icons subfolder (for YzDock) or the main dock folder (for ObjectDock). Easy as pie. When you have the icons and programs you like, it should look something like this:


4) YzToolbar and YzShadow are pretty self-explanatory. Just install 'em and run 'em. You can find good YzToolbar skins on the net: I'd recommend Aqua-Soft or AquaXP. Depending on skin (Milk, for me) and settings, it should look something like this:


5) Rainlendar and Rainmeter are also pretty easy to install and set-up. Just run the installer, and find a good skin. Again, there's many to choose from. I'd suggest searching the forums at the aforementioned Aqua-Soft and AquaXP. Here's the Rainlender skin I use.


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Personally, I tweaked mine a little more to my suiting. Changed things a bit more, and Installed the Mac Theme for Firefox. I'm in Heaven... A screenshot of my Desktop & Browsing:

[Zuwxiv]

Thanks for the guide, I'm going to try this. I have both a PC and a Mac.

It's not that Macs have more style, its that PC's have no style at all.

[Incinerate_IV]

Alsome guide! I've always wondered about how to get the dock, and now I know. Hopefully that program works under Windows X64

[HorseArcher]

I did something similar last year with the styleXP and windowsblind, but after the tranformation, I couldn't find my way around my desktop. It's nice to try but you gonna have to get used to it, if you never used mac's before.

[Hub'ite]

I have a n00b question, I got rid of all my desktop icons but I can't get rid of the Recycle Bin. How do I get if off my desktop?

[Lee1026]

The bar don't work all that well. You actually have to press the minimize button to get a window to show up on it. Now, if you are juggling windows, this can get annoying real fast.
Still, Alt - Tab rule.

[Incinerate_IV]

I have a n00b question, I got rid of all my desktop icons but I can't get rid of the Recycle Bin. How do I get if off my desktop?

You have to edit the recycle bin value in the registry in order to rename/delete the recycle bin. I don't suggest you deleteing it though, since it would be a lot of hassle to delete files if you did, unless you made a shortcut of it somewhere.

To rename the recycle bin go to this directory in the registry (Start -> Run -> Regedit.exe):

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08 -00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

Right click on attributes and click modify, change the value to "50 01 00 20".

Then change the value of CallForAttributes to "0".

*When you change attributes there might be some other numbers and letters in there, just leave them alone.

If you really want to delete it, modify attributes to "70 01 00 20"

[Hub'ite]

Thanks for the help. I finally figured out how to erase the icons.

[shadowarmy75]

I thnk Vista is even better than Mac. It has that cool smoothlook, but still retains the features of Windows, like my trusty Start Menu.

[Incinerate_IV]

Alsome thread, stickied

[Lee1026]

Wait.... When did you get mod poweress?

[Hadrian]

He got 'em today! Lee1026, our brother is a man whose heart is in the......Basement?

[PyrrhusIV]

If Incinerate mods one more forum, he will have more powers than me... but my forum is almost dead anyways....
Congrat's my friend

Alsome thread, stickied

Thanks wait, stickied? It is normal, but maybe you changed it back

[Incinerate_IV]

Lee1026 made a thread containing the links for all the guides, so I unstickied the guides. Makes it look a little neater.

[visualchaosfx]

I have yet to try this out but can this be done by using the demo versions of the software on the list or do you have to actually buy them??

[iPwntUrMum]

Its a shame this is all for XP...

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Grave digger ^^^

[iPwntUrMum]

Sorry. I just saw it in the general guides and didn't even think about how old it is.

[Jaketh]

Mac looks like compared to Windows 7, times have changed

[Top-Tier-Tech]

I'm waiting for Windows 8 I think it will be totally redesigned like Vista was in comparison to XP. If it isn't totally redesigned then there won't be any reason to move to win 8.

That mac theme looks fugly.